Category: My Post

However, as time goes on, my reflection and lessons from it have become more intentional.

Today is no exception.

I went through my entire 2018 calendar. Every meeting, whether personal or professional was looked at. I keep a very meticulous calendar and every appointment on it was looked at.

The goal was to identify where I felt my time had been invested or had a good return and to also identify where I felt my time was wasted. I identified people who were fun to hang out with… people who made it easy to be there friend… people who were going somewhere… people who I shared common interests with… and a few more insights. From those insights, I made notes of how to make better use of my time in 2019; where to invest it more and where to not waste it.

I also went through all of my 2019 goals (again). This time was the point of no return though.

I went through each one to make sure they were relevant and that each of them had obvious action plans with them. I also made sure that if each of them were my 2019 goals, that I was 100% committed to make them happen. I want to make sure that I am fully vested in each of them so that come tomorrow, I can go all in and not look back.

One came from something I read about the average lifespan in the US being 30,000 days. 30,000 days is just over 82 years.

I’m 55 (born in 1963) and when I read that I immediately did the math. In theory, I have almost exactly 10,000 days to live.

Out of those two thoughts, 10,000 days was born.

For Christmas all I asked for was 10,000 pennies. They are meant to be an icon of sorts to represent how I am investing each of my 10,000 days. I am keeping them in a box and I’ll move them from that box to another. One penny a day.

Each morning, I’ll “move a penny” and give serious intent to what I’ll do with that day. Whether it’s as a man, husband, father, granddad (AKA Dapa G), professional or other area of life…I hope to be on point on a very regular basis.

Each evening, I’ll reflect on how well I did.

What did I do well and what did I waste time on.

The goal is to keep raising my “living intentionally” score over time.

10,000 days will be the place that I write about both my ups and downs…my successes and losses…etc.

The goal is to not only inspire myself with the blog and pennies, but to also inspire you as well.

Stay tuned and join in. Also, I’d love for you to share this with others so they too can become more intentional with their life. Day by day. Penny by penny.

As I’ve gotten further into life (IE older) I’ve become more aware of my time on planet Earth and I’ve also become more intentional with my time as well.

I’ve realized how quickly time truly is slipping away.

They say time is the greatest commodity we have. I believe it. Like any commodity, we can we can waste time, spend it or invest it. However, unlike other commodities we can’t find time or save it.

So, our goal in life, hopefully sooner than later, is to learn how to make good use of our time. It sounds so easy, yet, it seems so difficult to get right. Especially on a consistent basis.

Like a good diet plan, we can declare that we are never going to waste time again, only to find time slipping into being used for stuff that has little to no return on investment at all.

I’ll be writing more and more about my time, and your time, on the third rock from the sun.

Let’s start with this:

Do a time audit. It may sound like overkill, or unnecessary, but do it for grins and giggles anyway.

Take a look at your day from waking to going to bed in 15 minute increments.

Here’s why: I’ve found that I tend to waste, lose time in smaller increments than I do in larger. If you asked me to waste an hour, or two, on some meaningless garbage, I’d refuse. However, let me grab 15 minutes of social media wandering, watch a TV show and spend a few minutes “waiting” on somebody or something and there you have it. A couple hours gone. Forever.

So, let’s start there.

When you wake up tomorrow, start taking notes.

See what happens.

Let’s see how much time slips into the future without having been invested in anything, or anyone, meaningful.